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CRIME

Man arrested in Innsbruck on suspicion of kidnap and carjacking

A man has been arrested in Innsbruck on suspicion of kidnapping one woman and attacking two others in underground car parks in the space of three days.

Published: 22 December 2016 17:05 CET
Man arrested in Innsbruck on suspicion of kidnap and carjacking
A photograph of the suspect taken on Wednesday. Image: LKA Tirol

On Tuesday, a pregnant woman was attacked. On Wednesday a woman believed to be the 61-year-old daughter of deceased Austrian actor Karlheinz Böhm was kidnapped, and on Thursday another woman was carjacked.

In the most recent incident a man wearing a hooded top attacked a woman in Hötting on Thursday morning and escaped with her grey Ford Fiesta. Police were notified and quickly pursued him. As he was trying to get away the man crashed the car into a wall in the village of Zirl and was arrested shortly afterwards. He ran off into a wooded area and tried to hide but was spotted by the crew of a police helicopter. His victim couldn’t remember what had happened to her and was taken to hospital.

On Wednesday afternoon a witness saw a woman, believed to be Sissy Böhm, being forced into a car in an underground garage and driven off by an unknown man. The driver lost control of the car in Hall and crashed into a fence. He then ran off and the woman was seriously injured in the accident. She’s currently in hospital and has not been able to speak to police – who did not want to disclose her identity. A witness who saw the crash was able to take a photo of the driver before he ran off.

On Tuesday a woman who is seven months pregnant was brutally attacked in an underground car park. A man hit the 34-year-old several times from behind and kicked her in the head. She was treated in hospital for her injuries. 

 

TERRORISM

Austrian investigators seize devices at Munich shooter’s home

Investigators seized electronic devices at the home of a young Austrian who fired shots near Israel's Munich consulate, but found no weapons or Islamic State group propaganda material, authorities said Friday.

Published: 7 September 2024 09:02 CEST
Austrian investigators seize devices at Munich shooter's home

German police shot dead the 18-year-old man on Thursday when he fired a vintage rifle at them near the diplomatic building.

They said they were treating it as a “terrorist attack”, apparently timed to coincide with the anniversary of the killings of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games.

Authorities raided the gunman’s home in the Salzburg region, seizing electronic data carriers, Austria’s top security chief Franz Ruf told a press conference in Vienna on Friday.

READ ALSO: Munich Israeli consulate gunman was ‘Austrian national known to authorities’

During the raid, “no weapons or IS propaganda” material were found, Ruf added.

Despite being subject to a ban on owning and carrying weapons, the man managed to purchase a vintage carbine rifle fitted with a bayonet with around “fifty rounds of ammunition” for 400 euros ($445) the day before the attack, Ruf said.

He opened fire at around 9:00 am (0700 GMT) near the Israeli consulate, sparking a mobilisation of about 500 police in downtown Munich.

At a separate press conference in Munich, prosecutor Gabriele Tilmann said investigators were combing through the gunman’s electronic data but had yet to find conclusive evidence of his motive.

But the “working hypothesis” was that “the perpetrator acted out of Islamist or anti-Semitic motivation”, she told reporters.

Austrian police said on Thursday that the gunman, who had Bosnian roots, had previously been investigated on suspicion of links to terrorism.

Investigators last year found three videos he had recorded in 2021, showing scenes from a computer game “with Islamist content”, prosecutors said in a statement.

In one of them the suspect had used an avatar with a flag of the “al-Nusra Front”, a jihadist group active in Syria, said Ruf.

But the investigation was dropped in 2023 as there were no indications that he was active in “radical” circles, prosecutors said.

“The mere playing of a computer game or the re-enactment of violent Islamist scenes was not sufficient to prove intent to commit the offence,” they added.

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